"And then I'd take a deep breath and try to explain that, no, he's not Canada's Thatcher or Reagan.
But, with a bit of luck, he might be Canada's John Howard. Not in the sense that he's a blunt, no-nonsense, plain speaker: that seems to have been bred out of our political DNA, alas.
Howard is an ordinary bloke, but he's not bland. By comparison, Harper is not just unexciting, he's unexciting even by Canadian standards! As he told a meeting in Ontario the other day, "Bland sells." Well, anyway, whatever the Brit guy's name is, the UK Tories have done what a lot of parties do: pick a great personality and then see if they can order him up a political philosophy from room service.
John Howard in Australia proves that's the wrong way round to do it, and so I think will Stephen Harper.
And, if over the next few years Canada upgrades its presence on the international scene from "All But Invisible" to a functioning member of the Anglosphere, that will be all to the good, too."
Mark Steyn, a Canadian, is a columnist for Canada's Western Standard, Maclean's magazine and a regular contributor to The Australian's opinion page.
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